When wet soap is placed in a soap dish or placed on the rim of the basin of a sink or washtub, the bottom of the soap often becomes viscous, or "gloppy," as some people might say. Some of this viscous soap hardens on the surface of the soap dish or basin becoming soap scum. This requires time, energy, and money to clean. The rest of the viscous soap usually remains on the bar of soap only to be washed down the drain the next time soap is used. These are obviously wasteful occurrences.
To solve this problem, people have heretofore used magnetic soap holders. By and large, the magnetic soap holders comprise an arm, a magnet, and a magnetically activatable soap-holding plate. The arm is substantially parallel to the ground and mounted so as to be substantially perpendicular to a wall, i.e. sticking out from a wall. The soap-holding magnet is embedded in or attached to the underside of the arm. The magnetically activated soap-holding plate is inserted into the soap. The bar of soap then hangs from the arm due to the magnetic force drawing the magnetically activated soap-holding plate in the bar of soap to the soap-holding magnet in the arm. The bar of soap then dries simply by hanging in the air suspended above such surfaces as the sink basin. Several inventions utilize this basic structure. These include: U.S. Pat. No. 2,597,925, issued to Urey Edger on May 27, 1952; U.S. Pat. No. 2,825,177, issued to Ragnar Nordlof and Leif Nordlie on Mar. 4, 1958; U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,391, issued to Gino Bolognesi on Oct. 14, 1969; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,705, issued to Eldred Caster on Jan. 5, 1971. However, all of these inventions have drawbacks.
For instance, all of these inventions use substantially or partially exposed magnets. The magnets used were circular. Circular magnets do not allow a strong enough magnetic pull through any significant distance because the magnetic force is not concentrated. Thus, the circular soap-holding magnet and magnetically activatable soap-holding plate must be in direct contact (i.e. the circular magnet must be exposed) to properly secure the soap. The exposed magnet gives more nooks and crannies in which dirt and soap scum could collect, making cleaning of the magnetic soap holder difficult.
The present invention solves this and other problems. The soap-holding magnet is rectangular or square, as opposed to circular. This also allows a soap-holding-magnet housing to be used. This soap-holding-magnet housing is a u-shaped metal plate with a securement device, such as downward bent flanges, fitted over the soap-holding magnet. This concentrates the magnetic force at the edges of the flanges of the u-shaped soap-holding-magnet housing and increases the magnetic force at the edges of the flanges. Due to this increased magnetic force, the soap-holding-magnet is able to attract a heavier, larger bar of soap. This also means that the soap-holding-magnet need not be exposed as long as the bottom edges of the flanges are exposed. This allows the improved magnetic soap holder to employ a thin layer of material to cover the soap-holding-magnet compartment, or, alternatively, the entire underside of the arm, leaving slots through which the flanges of the soap-holding-magnet housing protrude. This thin layer of material is preferably the same material of which the rest of the arm is made. The soap-holding-magnet maagnet and the soap-holding-magnet housing are still able to attract the magnetically activated soap-holding plate but are not exposed to dirt. The surface of the arm underside covering is a relatively smooth one, thus making cleaning easier. Employing the arm underside covering also protects ceramic magnets which are easily broken if struck directly.
The present invention also utilizes a boss in the soap-holding-magnet compartment. The boss is a small protrusion running the entire width of the arm which allows the soap-holding magnet and the soap-holding-magnet housing to be secured by being snapped into the soap-holding-magnet compartment. This manufacturing step is done in one, quick motion by a human or robot. This saves money compared to other methods which are relatively intensive in terms of labor and time, such as gluing or screwing down the soap-holding-magnet and soap-holding-magnet housing.
In addition, all of the above cited magnetic soap holders have relatively short arms. This means that the bar of soap is secured such that the bar's longer axis is substantially parallel to the ground but substantially perpendicular to the arm. (Other orientations are those such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,743, issued to John S. Page, Jr. on Feb. 16, 1965, which uses no arm, and the Edger invention which holds the bar such that the bar's longer axis is vertical and perpendicular to the arm.) Because of this, a large portion of the bar of soap is exposed to errant movement of such things as arms and washcloths.
The present invention utilizes an arm which is long enough to accommodate a family-sized bar of soap. This allows the soap to be secured so that its longer axis is substantially parallel to the arm. Because of this, most of the soap is protected by the arm allowing less chance for the soap to be knocked off. However, the present invention also allows the soap to be held in any attitude. The improved magnetic soap holder is able to employ a longer arm and, thus, hold larger, family-sized bars of soap because the soap-holding magnet in combination with the soap-holding-magnet housing creates greater magnetic force.
Finally, the present invention, in an alternate embodiment, also has one or more rectangular or square utensil-holding magnets in the second end of the arm. This allows the improved magnetic soap holder to hold other items which are normally used in the same area as soap, including, but not limited to, toothbrushes, safety razors, combs, and other utensils. One invention, U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,566, issued to Jeffrey Hempel on Nov. 17, 1992, uses magnets to hold toothbrushes, but none of the above cited inventions combined the use of magnets to hold both soap and other items in the same invention.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a soap-holding-magnet with a soap-holding-magnet housing so as to concentrate the magnetic force at the edges of the flanges of the soap-holding-magnet housing and create greater lifting strength.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved magnetic soap holder with unexposed magnets, thus allowing the improved magnetic soap holder to be more easily cleaned.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a less costly and time consuming means of securing the soap-holding and utensil-holding magnets, to be achieved through use of a boss which allows the soap-holding magnet and the soap-holding-magnet housing to be quickly snapped into place.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved magnetic soap holder with an arm long enough to accommodate a family-sized bar of soap.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an improved magnetic soap holder which also uses utensil-holding magnets to hold other items, including, but not limited to, toothbrushes, safety razors, and other utensils.